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Flux: Google Reader Client for Windows 8

Google reader client for Windows 8 has arrived in style. Descending from Windows Phone platform, the developers of Flux have yet again managed to appease Windows OS community users. They say, any platforms, be it mobile or PC, their fate is decided by the support of developers or a number of applications available for the users. Well Windows 8 community is blessed with thousands of developers and the number is increasing exponentially. Full-fledged Windows 8 appearance is still at least a month away, but users have already started enjoying metro powered UI. Who would have thought that a simple square/rectangular interface will catch so much of a buzz. Even though, only RTM and consumer preview version are out there for final testing, a myriad of apps have already started popping up in Windows 8 store. For an avid reader, Google reader client for Windows 8 could be the most enticing app besides comic reader which we covered a couple of days back.

Google reader offers a simple uniform platform where you can manage and read the various feeds. Users can subscribe to different RSS feed, categorize them and do much more with them. Not to forget that people can also manage them smartly without digging deeper in knowhow. Flux, Google reader client for Windows 8, brings the same elegance to the Windows 8 platform. The app has written Metro all over it. Flux has already won the hearts of millions of Windows Phone users, so there’s no slightest doubt that it will manage to do so on the most exciting platform to date. It brings simplicity to the table alongside offline reading provision. However, it would be interesting to see how this Google reader fares against its Mac counterparts.

Exciting Features of Flux

Offline reading— supports 15k articles

Incremental sync

Semantic Zoom

Readability, Instapaper support

Filters

Mark read

Read articles in preview mode

How to manage and use Flux on Windows 8

Go to Windows 8 store and search for Flux (follow our tutorial on how to search app in Windows 8 store). Once you download Flux and install on your Windows 8 OS, enter your Google account credentials. Those who have activated 2-way authentication can generate dedicated application related password and use it here.

That’s it. You have successfully managed to handle the most difficult task. You have set-up and synced Flux Google reader client on Windows 8 system of yours successfully. The rest of the journey should be simpler without any impediments or hiccups. On successful authorization, you will be welcomed with a tile based UI, which is also a default UI for most of the Windows 8 apps. Be aware! The program will take more than usual time on the first run since it has to download more data. It works on incremental sync phenomenon which will load the app in a snap on successive occasion. The Google reader client app for Windows 8, meanwhile, will download all the necessary data and feeds. You can then immediately begin reading your favorite feeds without any lag. Even, the offline reading feature will help you a lot since it has downloaded all the files and necessary data while online. This is something missing in many popular Google reader apps.

The metro interface will provide all the feeds in well-organize category along with the notification or unread articles. The first screen of this most ingenious Google reader client has two sections—left hand section is for all feeds update and right hand side displays starred articles. Since this is a 2-way sync operation, marking articles as favorite will update it in real time, provided you’re connected to the internet. The whole app looks similar to normal book where left hand side houses all the index of articles and right hand side opens up the selected feed in its full glory. This aid in quicker reading without yourself finding in swiping left-to-right to just navigate through different items in the feed. It also displays a thumbnail of the images so you can understand the topic more easily (they say, a picture is worth a thousand words). On the right hand pane, there is an option to mark the item as favorite, mark as read and add it to readability or instapaper account. The last option in this Google reader client for Windows 8 facilitates viewing the article in mobile version mode. From here, you can view the article in portrait mode as well.

Flux also offers a snapped view option which helps in keeping an eye on real-time updates while reading the current article in full screen. The lower bar brings few more options like syncing the Google reader client manually or filter the feeds. Users can pin stream to start to keep an eye on the live stream created from Google reader subscriptions. I know, by now you must be itching your hands to try out this beast on your newly installed Windows 8 system.

Flux, Google reader client for Windows 8 is in preview stage so you may expect it to get only better once the full and final version is out. The developer has already mentioned that support for multiple Live tiles will be added in the later version.